1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for purifying air, and more particularly to an apparatus for purifying and humidifying air which includes dual flow paths and may further function as a humidifier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An air purifier, which is constructed to purify contaminated air thus making clean air, functions by passing air through a filter to remove dust, bacteria and unpleasant odors from air.
With the increase of yellow sand, harmful dust and the like, air pollution has become serious and thus respiratory diseases caused by air pollution have increased. Due to the social atmosphere in which the public interest paid to health has increased, the need and demand for an air purifier are drastically increasing.
A typical air purifier includes a fan for drawing air to be purified into the air purifier, and a filter assembly for purifying the air. In particular, the filter assembly includes a plurality of filters having various pore sizes and a filter frame supporting the filters. Examples of the filter may include a preprocessing filter made of antibacterial material which functions to remove relatively large dust particles, mold, the hair of pet animals and the like, a washing filter and a HEPA filter.
Meanwhile, the air purifier may further include a humidification filter which is configured to humidify air and to offer humidified air having a predetermined humidity, in addition to the above filters. Thanks to the humidification filter, impurities contained in the air are removed, and air containing moisture is supplied, thus enabling control of indoor humidity.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional apparatus for purifying and humidifying air. As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus comprises a body housing 11 and a front cover 20 detachably mounted on the body housing 11. The front cover 20 has a suction inlet through which external air is introduced into the body housing 11. The introduced air is passed through a filter unit 23 composed of a plurality of filters, and is thus purified. The purified air is introduced into a blower fan housing 28 accommodating a blower fan 25 through a blower fan inlet 27 formed at the front side of the blower fan housing 28, and is then discharged from the apparatus through a discharge outlet. A humidification filter 22 is disposed at a low position in the front of the blower fan 25. Some of the purified air which has passed through the filter unit 23 passes through the humidification filter 22, resulting in humidified, clean air. The humidified clean air is also introduced into the blower fan housing 28 through the blower fan inlet 27, and is then discharged through the discharge outlet 29.
Unfortunately, the conventional apparatus for purifying and humidifying air is disadvantageous because the operations of air purification and air humidification cannot be independently performed. In other words, as shown in the drawing, the purified air and the humidified air are discharged together. Consequently, there is a problem in that the humidified air is continuously supplied regardless of the humidity of the outside air. Furthermore, since the conventional apparatus is configured to permit air to be introduced thereinto only through the front side of the blower fan, the efficiency of air treatment is negatively impacted. In this context, it is to be understood that air purification refers solely to the treatment of purifying air through a general filter without doing the humidification.